Cooler Master Storm Inferno Gaming Laser Mouse

The Cooler Master Storm Inferno is a precise mouse with good build quality and a terrific sense of style. It offers many upper level features and plenty of adjustability for a price that represents a pretty good value.

Page 1: Introduction, About Cooler Master, Packaging

For the past few years, Cooler Master has started diversifying their product line outside of their typical target market. They have introduced laptop accessories, various types of mice, and, most recently, the Storm line of gaming peripherals. Today, ASE Labs will be looking at the Cooler Master Storm Inferno, Cooler Master's latest addition to their Storm range of products.

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OUR MISSION
Cooler Master was founded with the mission of providing the industry's best thermal solutions. Since its establishment a decade ago, the company has remained faithful to this mission, emerging as a world leader in products and services for companies dealing with devices where heat issues must be resolved.

In pursuing this mission, Cooler Master is absolutely committed to delivering solutions that precisely meet customer requirements for features, performance, and quality. Moreover, we strive to be a reliable long-term partner for our customers that they can truly depend on. Cooler Master aims to be the first and foremost name that comes to mind for companies around the world seeking thermal solutions, and seeks to build such a reputation through outstanding technology, sophisticated design, and superior service.

Cooler Master's current business encompasses a comprehensive lineup of thermal solutions for a full range of applications. Our products range from heat sinks and fans to component housing, chassis, and ducting for computers, industrial machinery, telecommunications equipment, and many other devices.

A critical component of Cooler Master's ability to successfully pursue its mission is an unstinting commitment to quality, as demonstrated by the ISO 9001 certification granted to its main manufacturing plant in Taiwan. We have also enforced ISO guidelines and is in the process of applying for ISO 9002 certification at its second and third plants, located in China. Cooler Master has also implemented a number of analytical and testing protocols to ensure top quality, including at subcontractors, to further ensure thorough quality control. Moreover, Cooler Master's dedication to quality extends beyond manufacturing to every aspect of its operation, including service.

The first sign that shows a company is committed to their products is the effort that they go when designing their packaging. Smart packaging helps build brand awareness. The more your packaging stands out, the more notable your products will be on the minds of consumers. In this respect, Cooler Master has certainly gone all out.

The front of the packaging has pretty nifty black/red motif going on with a picture of the mouse surrounded by glowing streaks and some of the mouse specifications along the bottom. However, the front of the packaging also contains the biggest problem in the way the mouse is presented. The mouse is, intentionally or not, presented in a way that does make it look like a wireless mouse more than a wired one.

While it is likely that most sales of this product would be made online where people would (probably) know better, the box has been designed to hang from store shelves and nothing on the packaging makes any mention of the mouse being wired or not. In fact, even with the special way the packaging for this mouse was designed (more on that a bit later), it still came as somewhat of a surprise that the mouse was indeed wired upon opening it up. With that issue out of the way, we can move on to the rear of the package.

The back of the box mentions the product features and also carries a bit of the motif from the front of the packaging. While all of these features will be discussed more thoroughly a bit later, take particular note of the Polling Rate and Lift-off distance numbers. These determine how smooth the mouse operation is on screen is and how high you have to lift the mouse off of the mouse pad to get it to stop tracking, respectively. The latter is particularly important number. As mentioned by Aron in his review of the »Arctic Cooling M571, too high of a tracking distance by the lasers can make large mouse movements a chore.